THE GOVERP; 

IN THE CHICAGO Sflli 



GROVER CLEVELAND 





Glass 

Book i_ 

(d 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE GOVERNMENT IN THE CHICAGO 
STRIKE OF 1894 



THE 

STAFFORD LITTLE LECTURES 

PUBLISHED BY 
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The Independence of the Executive, by Grover 
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The Government in the Chicago Strike of 1894, by 

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m 







The Cleveland Memorial Tower 

Graduate College 

Princeton 



THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 
CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 



BY 

GROVER CLEVELAND 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 
PRINCETON 

LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD 
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 



1913 



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Copyright, 


1913, by 




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Press 



Published October, 1913 




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PREFATORY NOTE 

President Cleveland first visited Princeton at 
the time of the Sesquicentennial Celebration 
and made the chief address of that occasion on 
October 22, 1896. A few months later he 
retired from the Presidency and made Prince- 
ton his home for the remaining eleven years of 
his life. For the last seven of these years he 
served as Trustee of Princeton University and 
for the closing four years also acted as Chair- 
man of the Committee on the Graduate School 
having special charge of the project for the 
residential Graduate College. He died on June 
24, 1908, and was buried, as he desired, in 
his family plot in Princeton. By express pro- 
vision of his will the only monument to mark 
his grave was to be the simple one which has 
already been erected. 

Shortly after Mr. Cleveland came to live in 
Princeton it was proposed to found a Lecture- 
ship on Public Affairs in his honor. In the 



iv PREFATORY NOTE 

early summer of 1899 Mr. Henry Stafford 
Little, an alumnus of the University, endowed 
the lectureship and expressed the hope that Mr. 
Cleveland would consent to hold it, or at any 
rate to be the first incumbent. Mr. Cleveland 
was reluctant to undertake any new work at 
that time, but on receiving- special word from 
Mr. Little, who was then critically ill, agreed 
to prepare an address for the next year. 

On April 9 and 10, 1900, every seat in 
Alexander Hall was taken and there were 
throngs standing to hear his two addresses on 
"The Independence of the Executive." The 
next spring he lectured twice on "The Vene- 
zuelan Boundary Question." For the next two 
years there were no lectures, and in 1904 
Mr. Cleveland read one lecture on "The 
Government in the Chicago Strike." He 
always had crowded audiences, both for him- 
self and the grave importance of the questions 
he treated. He was heard with the closest 
attention and repeatedly welcomed with affec- 
tionate enthusiasm. 

Seventeen years ago to the day since Mr. 
Cleveland first spoke in Princeton, his Prince- 



PREFATORY NOTE v 

ton lectures are now republished in expanded 
form on the day of the dedication of the 
Graduate College he so strongly supported and 
did not live to see realized, and also the dedi- 
cation day of the Cleveland Memorial Tower, 
erected by national subscription and built into 
the Graduate College for which he labored. 

The lectures here reprinted are disclosures 
of the meaning of important happenings in our 
national history. They are even more; for 
they make clear as light that plain, strict, un- 
swerving and unaffected honesty which was 
the vigorous central power in Grover Cleve- 
land's life. It is well his words should be 
heard again at the time we gather to dedicate 
his national monument. 

Andrew F. West. 

The Graduate College 

Princeton University 

October 22, 1913 



THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 
CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 

I 

The President inaugurated on the fourth 
day of March, 1893, and those associated with 
him as Cabinet officials, encountered, during 
their term of executive duty, unusual and es- 
pecially perplexing difficulties. The members 
of that administration who still survive, in re- 
calling the events of this laborious service, can- 
not fail to fix upon the years 1894 and 1895 as 
the most troublous and anxious of their in- 
cumbency. During those years unhappy cur- 
rency complications compelled executive resort 
to heroic treatment for the preservation of 
our nation's financial integrity, and forced 
upon the administration a constant, unrelenting 
struggle for sound money; a long and persis- 
tent executive effort to accomplish beneficent 
and satisfactory tariff reform so nearly mis- 



2 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

carried as to bring depression and disappoint- 
ment to the verge of discouragement; and it 
was at the close of the year 1895 that executive 
insistence upon the Monroe Doctrine culmin- 
ated in a situation that gave birth to solemn 
thoughts of war. Without attempting to com- 
plete the list of troubles and embarrassments 
that beset the administration during these luck- 
less years, I have reserved for separate and 
more detailed treatment one of its incidents not 
yet mentioned, which immensely increased ex- 
ecutive anxiety and foreboded the most calam- 
itous and far-reaching consequences. 

In the last days of June, 1894, a very deter- 
mined and ugly labor disturbance broke out in 
the city of Chicago. Almost in a night it grew 
to full proportions of malevolence and danger. 
Rioting and violence were its early accompani- 
ments; and it spread so swiftly that within a 
few days it had reached nearly the entire West- 
ern and Southwestern sections of our country. 
Railroad transportation was especially involved 
in its attacks. The carriage of United States 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 3 

mails was interrupted, interstate commerce 
was obstructed, and railroad property was 
riotously destroyed. 

This disturbance is often called "The Chi- 
cago Strike." It is true that its beginning was 
in that city ; and the headquarters of those who 
inaugurated it and directed its operations were 
located there; but the name thus given to it is 
an entire misnomer so far as it applies to 
the scope and reach of the trouble. Railroad 
operations were more or less affected in 
twenty-seven States and Territories; and in 
all these the interposition of the general 
Government was to a greater or less extent 
invoked. 

This wide-spread trouble had its inception 
in a strike by the employees of the Pullman 
Palace Car Company, a corporation located 
and doing business at the town of Pullman, 
which is within the limits of the city of Chi- 
cago. This company was a manufacturing 
corporation — or at least it was not a railroad 
corporation. Its main object was the opera- 



4 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

tion and running of sleeping- and parlor-cars 
upon railroads under written contracts ; but its 
charter contemplated the manufacture of cars 
as well; and soon after its incorporation it 
began the manufacture of its own cars and, 
subsequently, the manufacture of cars for the 
general market. 

The strike on the part of the employees of 
this company began on the eleventh day of 
May, 1894, and was provoked by a reduction 
of wages. 

The American Railway Union was organized 
in the summer of 1893. It was professedly an 
association of all the different classes of rail- 
way employees. In its scope and intent it was 
the most compact and effective organization of 
the kind ever attempted. Its purpose was a 
thorough unification of defensive and offensive 
effort among railway employees under one cen- 
tral direction, and the creation of a combina- 
tion embracing all such employees, which 
should make the grievances of any section of 
its membership a common cause. Those promi- 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 5 

nent in this project estimated that various 
other organizations of railroad employees then 
existing had a membership of 102,000 in the 
United States and neighboring countries; and 
they claimed that these brotherhoods, because 
of divided councils and for other reasons, were 
ineffective, and that nearly 1,000,000 railroad 
employees still remained unorganized. 

The wonderful growth of this new combina- 
tion is made apparent by the fact that between 
the month of August, 1893, and the time it 
became involved in the Pullman strike, in June, 
1894, it had enrolled nearly 150,000 members. 

The employees of the Pullman Palace Car 
Company could not on any reasonable and 
consistent theory be regarded as eligible to 
membership in an organization devoted to the 
interests of railway employees; and yet, dur- 
the months of March, April, and May, 1894, 
it appears that nearly 4000 of these employees 
were enrolled in the American Railway Union. 

This, to say the least of it, was an exceed- 
ingly unfortunate proceeding, since it created a 



6 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

situation which implicated in a comparatively 
insignificant quarrel between the managers of 
an industrial establishment and their workmen 
the large army of the Railway Union. It was 
the membership of these workmen in the Rail- 
way Union, and the union's consequent as- 
sumption of their quarrel, that gave it the 
proportions of a tremendous disturbance, par- 
alyzing the most important business interests, 
obstructing the functions of the Government, 
and disturbing social peace and order. 
n No injury to the property of the Pullman 
Palace Car Company was done or attempted 
while the strike was confined to its employees ; 
and during that time very little disorder of any 
kind occurred. 

It so happened, however, that in June, 1894, 
after the strike at Pullman had continued for 
about one month, a regular stated convention 
of the American Railway Union was held in 
the city of Chicago, which was attended by 
delegates from local branches of the organiza- 
tion in different States, as well as by represen- 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 7 

tatives of its members among the employees of 
the- Pullman Palace Car Company. At this 
convention the trouble at Pullman was con- 
sidered, and after earnest efforts on the part 
of the Railway Union to bring about a settle- 
ment, a resolution was, on the twenty-second 
day of June, passed by the convention, declar- 
ing that unless the Pullman Palace Car 
Company should adjust the grievances of its 
employees before noon of the twenty-sixth day 
of June, the members of the American Railway 
Union would, after that date, refuse to handle 
Pullman cars and equipment. 

The twenty-sixth day of June arrived with- 
out any change in the attitude of the parties 
to the Pullman controversy; and thereupon 
the order made by the American Railway 
Union forbidding the handling of Pullman 
cars, became operative throughout its entire 
membership. 

At this time the Pullman Palace Car Com- 
pany was furnishing drawing-room and sleep- 
ing-car accommodations to the traveling public 



8 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

under contracts with numerous railway com- 
panies, and was covering by this service about 
one hundred and twenty-five thousand miles of 
railway, or approximately three fourths of all 
the railroad mileage of the country. The same 
railroad companies which had contracted to 
use these Pullman cars upon their lines had 
contracts with the United States Government 
for the carriage of mails, and were, of course, 
also largely engaged in interstate commerce. 
It need hardly be said that, of necessity, the 
trains on which the mails were carried and 
which served the purpose of interstate com- 
merce were, very generally, those to which the 
Pullman cars were also attached. 

The president of the Railway Union was one 
Eugene V. Debs. In a sworn statement after- 
ward made he gave the following description 
of the results of the interference of the union 
in the Pullman dispute : 

The employees, obedient to the order of the 
convention, at once, on the 26th, refused to haul 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 9 

Pullman cars. The switchmen, in the first place, 
refused to attach a Pullman car to a train, and 
that is where the trouble began; and then, when 
a switchman would be discharged for that, 
they would all simultaneously quit, as they had 
agreed to do. One department after another 
was involved until the Illinois Central was prac- 
tically paralyzed, and the Rock Island and other 
roads in their turn. Up to the first day of July, 
or after the strike had been in progress five days, 
the railway managers, as we believe, were com- 
pletely defeated. Their immediate resources 
were exhausted, their properties were paralyzed, 
and they were unable to operate their trains. 
Our men were intact at every point, firm, quiet, 
and yet determined, and no sign of violence or 
disorder anywhere. That was the condition on 
the thirtieth day of June and the first day of 

The officers of the Railway Union from 
their headquarters in the city of Chicago gave 
directions for the maintenance and manage- 
ment of the strike, which were quickly trans- 



10 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

mitted to distant railroad points and were there 
promptly executed. As early as the 28th of 
June, two days after the beginning of the 
strike ordered by the Railway Union at Chi- 
cago, information was received at Washington 
from the Post-Office Department that on the 
Southern Pacific System, between Portland 
and San Francisco, Ogden and San Francisco, 
and Los Angeles and San Francisco, the mails 
were completely obstructed, and that the 
strikers refused to permit trains to which 
Pullman cars were attached to run over the 
lines mentioned. Thereupon Attorney-General 
Olney immediately sent the following tele- 
graphic despatch to the United States district 
attorneys in the State of California: 

Washington, D. C, June 28, 1894. 
See that the passage of regular trains, carry- 
ing United States mails in the usual and ordin- 
ary way, as contemplated by the act of Congress 
and directed by the Postmaster-General, is not 
obstructed. Procure warrants or any other 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1S94 n 

available process from United States courts 
against any and all persons engaged in such 
obstructions, and direct the marshal to execute 
the same by such number of deputies or such 
posse as may be necessary. 

On the same day, and during a number of 
days immediately following, complaints of a 
similar character, sometimes accompanied by 
charges of forcible seizure of trains and other 
violent disorders, poured in upon the Attor- 
ney-General from all parts of the West and 
Southwest. These complaints came from post- 
office officials, from United States marshals and 
district attorneys, from railroad managers, and 
from other officials and private citizens. In 
all cases of substantial representation of inter- 
ference with the carriage of mails, a despatch 
identical with that already quoted was sent by 
the Attorney-General to the United States dis- 
trict attorneys in the disturbed localities; and 
this was supplemented, whenever necessary, by 
such other prompt action as the different emer- 
gencies required. 



12 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

I shall not enter upon an enumeration of all 
the disorders and violence, the defiance of law 
and authority, and the obstructions of national 
functions and duties, which occurred in many 
localities as a consequence of this labor con- 
tention, thus tremendously reinforced and com- 
pletely under way. It is my especial purpose 
to review the action taken by the Government 
for the maintenance of its own authority and 
the protection of the interests intrusted to its 
keeping, so far as they were endangered by this 
disturbance; and I do not intend to specifically 
deal with the incidents of the strike except in 
so far as a reference to them may be necessary 
to show conditions which not only justified but 
actually obliged the Government to resort to 
stern and unusual measures in the assertion of 
its prerogatives. 

Inasmuch, therefore, as the city of Chicago 
was the birthplace of the disturbance and the 
home of its activities, and because it was the 
field of its most pronounced and malign mani- 
festations, as well as the place of its final ex- 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 13 

tinction, I shall meet the needs of my subject 
if I supplement what has been already said by 
a recital of events occurring at this central 
point. In doing this, I shall liberally embody 
documents, orders, instructions, and reports 
which I hope will not prove tiresome, since 
they supply the facts I desire to present, at 
first hand and more impressively than they 
could be presented by any words of mine. 

Owing to the enforced relationship of Chi- 
cago to the strike which started within its 
borders, and because of its importance as a cen- 
ter of railway traffic, Government officials at 
Washington were not surprised by the early 
and persistent complaints of mail and interstate 
commerce obstructions which reached them 
from that city. It was from the first antici- 
pated that this would be the seat of the most 
serious complications, and the place where the 
strong arm of the law would be most needed. 
In these circumstances it would have been a 
criminal neglect of duty if those charged with 
the protection of governmental agencies and 



\i 



14 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

the enforcement of orderly obedience and sub- 
mission to Federal authority, had been remiss 
in preparations for any emergency in that 
quarter. 

On the thirtieth day of June the district at- 
torney at Chicago reported by telegraph that 
mail trains in the suburbs of Chicago were, on 
the previous night, stopped by strikers, that an 
engine had been cut off and disabled, and that 
conditions were growing more and more likely 
to culminate in the stoppage of all trains ; and 
he recommended that the marshal be authorized 
to employ a force of special deputies who 
should be placed on trains to protect mails and 
detect the parties guilty of such interference. 
In reply to this despatch Attorney-General 01- 
ney on the same day authorized the marshal to 
employ additional deputies as suggested, and 
designated Edwin Walker, an able and promi- 
nent attorney in Chicago, as special counsel 
for the Government, to assist the district at- 
torney in any legal proceedings that might be 
instituted. He also notified the district attor- 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 15 

ney of the steps thus taken, and enjoined upon 
him that "action ought to be prompt and vigo- 
rous," and also directed him to confer with the 
special counsel who had been employed. In a 
letter of the same date addressed to this special 
counsel, the Attorney-General, in making sug- 
gestions concerning legal proceedings, wrote : 
"It has seemed to me that if the rights of the 
United States were vigorously asserted in Chi- 
cago, the origin and center of the demonstra- 
tion, the result would be to make it a failure 
everywhere else, and to prevent its spread over 
the entire country" ; and in that connection he 
indicated that it might be advisable, instead of 
relying entirely upon warrants issued under 
criminal statutes against persons actually guilty 
of the offense of obstructing the United States 
mails, to apply to the courts for injunctions 
which would restrain and prevent any attempt 
to commit such offense. This suggestion con- 
templated the inauguration of legal proceed- 
ings in a regular and usual way to restrain 
those prominently concerned in the interfer- 



1 6 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

ence with the mails and the obstruction of in- 
terstate commerce, basing such proceedings on 
the proposition that, under the Constitution 
and laws, these subjects were in the exclusive 
care of the Government of the United States, 
and that for their protection the Federal courts 
were competent under general principles of law 
to intervene by injunction; and on the further 
ground that under an act of Congress, passed 
July 2, 1890, conspiracies in restraint of trade 
or commerce among the several States were 
declared to be illegal, and the circuit courts 
of the United States were therein expressly 
given jurisdiction to prevent and restrain such 
conspiracies. 

On the first day of July the district attorney 
reported to the Attorney-General that he was 
preparing a bill of complaint to be presented to 
the court the next day, on an application for 
an injunction. He further reported that very 
little mail and no freight was moving, that the 
marshal was using all his force to prevent 
riots and the obstruction of tracks, and that 



Chicago Strike of 1894 17 

this force was clearly inadequate. On the same 
day the marshal reported that the situation was 
desperate, that he had sworn in over four 
hundred deputies, that many more would be re- 
quired to protect mail trains, and that he ex- 
pected great trouble the next day. He further 
expressed the opinion that one hundred riot 
guns were needed. 

Upon the receipt of these reports, and antici- 
pating an attempt to serve injunctions on the 
following day, the Attorney-General immedi- 
ately sent a despatch to the district attorney 
directing him to report at once if the process 
of the court should be resisted by such force as 
the marshal could not overcome, and suggest- 
ing that the United States judge should join 
in such report. He at the same time sent a 
despatch to the special counsel requesting him 
to report his view of the situation as early as 
the forenoon of the next day. 

In explanation of these two despatches it 
should here be said that the desperate character 
of this disturbance was not in the least under- 



i8 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

estimated by executive officials at Washington ; 
and it must be borne in mind that while men- 
acing conditions were moving swiftly and ac- 
cumulating at Chicago, like conditions, inspired 
and supported from that central point, existed 
in many other places within the area of the 
strike's contagion. 

Of course it was hoped by those charged 
with the responsibility of dealing with the situ- 
ation, that a direct assertion of authority by the 
marshal and a resort to the restraining power 
of the courts would prove sufficient for the 
emergency. Notwithstanding, however, an 
anxious desire to avoid measures more radical, 
the fact had not been overlooked that a con- 
tingency might occur which would compel a 
resort to military force. The key to these des- 
patches of the Attorney-General is found in the 
determination of the Federal authorities to 
overcome by any lawful and constitutional 
means all resistance to governmental functions 
as related to the transportation of mails, the 
operation of interstate commerce, and the pre- 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 19 

servation of the property of the United States. 
The Constitution requires that the United 
States shall protect each of the States against 
invasion, "and on application of the legislature, 
or of the executive (when the legislature can- 
not be convened), against domestic violence." 
There was plenty of domestic violence in the 
city of Chicago and in the State of Illinois dur- 
ing the early days of July, 1894; but no ap- 
plication was made to the Federal Government 
for assistance. It was probably a very fortu- 
nate circumstance that the presence of United 
States soldiers in Chicago at that time did not 
depend upon the request or desire of Governor 
Altgeld. 

Section 5298 of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States provides : "Whenever, by rea- 
son of unlawful obstructions, combinations or 
assemblages of persons, or rebellion against 
the authority of the United States, it shall be- 
come impracticable in the judgment of the 
President to enforce, by the ordinary course 
of judicial proceedings, the laws of the United 



20 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

States within any State or Territory, it shall be 
lawful for the President to call forth the 
militia of any or all of the States, and to em- 
ploy such parts of the land or naval forces of 
the United States as he may deem necessary 
to enforce the faithful execution of the laws of 
the United States, or to suppress such rebel- 
lion, in whatever State or Territory thereof 
the laws of the United States may be forcibly 
opposed, or the execution thereof be forcibly 
obstructed" ; and Section 5299 provides : 
"Whenever any insurrection, domestic violence, 
unlawful combinations or conspiracies in any 
State . . . opposes or obstructs the laws of the 
United States, or the due execution thereof, 
or impedes or obstructs the due course of 
justice under the same, it shall be lawful for 
the President, and it shall be his duty, to take 
such measures, by the employment of the mi- 
litia, or the land and naval forces of the 
United States, or of either, or by other means 
as he may deem necessary, for the suppres- 
sion of such insurrection, domestic violence or 
combinations." 



II 

It was the intention of the Attorney-General 
to suggest in these despatches that immediate 
and authoritative information should be given 
to the Washington authorities if a time should 
arrive when, under the sanction of general ex- 
ecutive authority, or the constitutional and stat- 
utory provisions above quoted, a military force 
would be necessary at the scene of disturbance. 

On the 2d of July, the day after these de- 
spatches were sent, information was received 
from the district attorney and special counsel 
that a sweeping injunction had been granted 
against Eugene V. Debs, president of the 
American Railway Union, and other officials of 
that organization, together with parties whose 
names were unknown, and that the writs would 
be served that afternoon. The special counsel 
also expressed the opinion that it would re- 
quire Government troops to enforce the orders 



22 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

of the court and protect the transportation of 
mails. 

Major-General Schofield was then in com- 
mand of the army; arid, after a consultation 
with him, in which the Attorney-General and 
the Secretary of War took part, I directed the 
issuance of the following order by telegraph to 
General Nelson A. Miles, in command of the 
Military Department of Missouri, with head- 
quarters at Chicago : 

Headquarters of the Army. 

Washington, July 2, 1894. 
To the Commanding-General, 
Department of Missouri, 
Chicago, III. 
You will please make all necessary arrange- 
ments confidentially for the transportation of 
the entire garrison at Fort Sheridan — infantry, 
cavalry, and artillery — to the lake front in the 
city of Chicago. To avoid possible interruption 
of the movement by rail and by marching 
through a part of the city, it may be advisable 
to bring them by steam-boat. Please consider 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 23 

this matter and have the arrangements perfected 
without delay. You may expect orders at any 
time for the movement. Acknowledge receipt 
and report in what manner movement is to be 
made. J. M. Schofield, 

Major-General Commanding. 



It should by no means be inferred from this 
despatch that it had been definitely determined 
that the use of a military force was inevitable. 
It was still hoped that the effect of the injunc- 
tion would be such that this alternative might 
be avoided. A painful emergency is created 
when public duty forces the necessity of plac- 
ing trained soldiers face to face with riotous 
opposition to the general Government, and an 
acute and determined defiance to law and order. 
This course, once entered upon, admits of no 
backward step; and an appreciation of the con- 
sequences that may ensue cannot fail to oppress 
those responsible for its adoption with sadly 
disturbing reflections. Nevertheless, it was 
perfectly plain that, whatever the outcome 



24 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

might be, the situation positively demanded 
such precaution and preparation as would in- 
sure readiness and promptness in case the pres- 
ence of a military force should finally be found 
necessary. 

On the morning of the next day, July 3, 
the Attorney-General received a letter from 
Mr. Walker, the special counsel, in which, af- 
ter referring to the issuance of the injunctions 
and setting forth that the marshal was en- 
gaged in serving them, he wrote : 

I do not believe that the marshal and his 
deputies can protect the railroad companies in 
moving their trains, either freight or passenger, 
including, of course, the trains carrying United 
States mails. Possibly, however, the service of 
the writ of injunction will have a restraining in- 
fluence upon Debs and other officers of the 
association. If it does not, from present ap- 
pearances, I think it is the opinion of all that 
the orders of the court cannot be enforced except 
by the aid of the regular army. 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 25 

Thereupon the Attorney-General immedi- 
ately sent this despatch to the district attorney : 

I trust use of United States troops will not 
be necessary. If it becomes necessary, they will 
be used promptly and decisively upon the justify- 
ing facts being certified to me. In such case, if 
practicable, let Walker and the marshal and 
United States judge join in statement as to the 
exigency. 

A few hours afterward the following urgent 
and decisive despatch from the marshal, en- 
dorsed by a judge of the United States Court 
and the district attorney and special counsel, 
was received by the Attorney-General. 



Chicago, 111., July 3, i< 
Hon. Richard Olney, Attorney-General, 
Washington, D. C. : 
When the injunction was granted yesterday, a 
mob of from two to three thousand held posses- 
sion of a point in the city near the crossing of the 



26 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

Rock Island by other roads, where they had 
already ditched a mail-train, and prevented the 
passing of any trains, whether mail or other- 
wise. I read the injunction writ to this mob 
and commanded them to disperse. The reading 
of the writ met with no response except jeers 
and hoots. Shortly after, the mob threw a 
number of baggage-cars across the track, since 
when no mail-train has been able to move. I 
am unable to disperse the mob, clear the tracks, 
or arrest the men who were engaged in the acts 
named, and believe that no force less than the 
regular troops of the United States can procure 
the passage of the mail-trains, or enforce the 
orders of the courts. I believe people engaged 
in trades are quitting employment to-day, and in 
my opinion will be joining the mob to-night and 
especially to-morrow; and it is my judgment 
that the troops should be here at the earliest 
moment. An emergency has arisen for their 
presence in this city. J. W. Arnold, 

United States Marshal. 

We have read the foregoing, and from that 

information, and other information that has 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 27 

come to us, believe that an emergency exists for 
the immediate presence of United States troops. 
P. S. Grosscup, Judge. 
Edwin Walker, ) 

Thomas E. Milchist, J 

In the afternoon of the same day the follow- 
ing order was telegraphed from army head- 
quarters in the city of Washington: 

War Department, 
Headquarters of the Army. 

Washington, D. C, July 3, 1894, 
4 o'clock P.M. 
To Martin, Adjutant-General, 

Headquarters Department of Missouri, 
Chicago, 111. 
It having become impracticable in the judg- 
ment of the President to enforce by the ordin- 
ary course of judicial proceedings the laws of 
the United States, you will direct Colonel Crof- 
ton to move his entire command at once to the 
city of Chicago (leaving the necessary guard at 
Fort Sheridan), there to execute the orders and 



28 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

processes of the United States court, to prevent 
the obstruction of the United States mails, and 
generally to enforce the faithful execution of 
the laws of the United States. He will confer 
with the United States marshal, the United 
States district attorney, and Edwin Walker, spe- 
cial counsel. Acknowledge receipt and report 
action promptly. By order of the President. 

J. M. Schofield, Major-General. 

Immediately after this order was issued, the 
following despatch was sent to the district at- 
torney by the Attorney-General : 

Colonel Crofton's command ordered to Chicago 
by the President. As to disposition and move- 
ment of troops, yourself, Walker, and marshal 
should confer with Colonel Crofton and with 
Colonel Martin, adjutant-general at Chicago. 
While action should be prompt and decisive, it 
should of course be kept within the limits pro- 
vided by the Constitution and laws. Rely upon 
yourself and Walker to see that this is done. 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 29 

Colonel Martin, adjutant-general at Chi- 
cago, reported, the same night at half-past nine 
o'clock, that the order for the movement of 
troops was, immediately on its receipt by him, 
transmitted to Fort Sheridan, and that Colonel 
Crofton's command started for Chicago at nine 
o'clock. 

During the forenoon of the next day, July 
4, Colonel Martin advised the War Depart- 
ment that Colonel Crofton reported his com- 
mand in the city of Chicago at 10:15 that 
morning. After referring to the manner in 
which the troops had been distributed, this offi- 
cer added : "People seem to feel easier since 
arrival of troops." 

General Miles, commanding the department, 
arrived in Chicago the same morning, and at 
once assumed direction of military movements. 
In the afternoon of that day he sent a report to 
the War Department at Washington, giving an 
account of the disposition of troops, recounting 
an unfavorable condition of affairs, and rec- 
ommending an increase of the garrison at 



30 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

Fort Sheridan sufficient to meet any emergency. 
In response to this despatch General Miles 
was immediately authorized to order six com- 
panies of infantry from Fort Leavenworth, in 
Kansas, and two companies from Fort Brady, 
in Michigan, to Fort Sheridan. 

On the fifth day of July he reported that a 
mob of over two thousand had gathered that 
morning at the stock-yards, crowded among 
the troops, obstructed the movement of trains, 
knocked down a railroad official, and over- 
turned about twenty freight-cars, which ob- 
structed all freight and passenger traffic in the 
vicinity of the stock-yards, and that the mob 
had also derailed a passenger-train on the 
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Rail- 
road, and burned switches. To this recital of 
violent demonstrations he added the following 
statement : 

The injunction of the United States court is 
openly defied, and unless the mobs are dispersed 
by the action of the police or they are fired upon 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 31 

by United States troops, more serious trouble 
may be expected, as the mob is increasing and 
becoming more defiant. 

In view of the situation as reported by Gen- 
eral Miles, a despatch was sent to him by Gen- 
eral Schofield directing him to concentrate his 
troops in order that they might act more effec- 
tively in the execution of orders theretofore 
given, and in the protection of United States 
property. This despatch concluded as follows : 

The mere preservation of peace and good 
order in the city is, of course, the province of 
the city and state authorities. 

The situation on the sixth day of July was 
thus described in a despatch sent in the after- 
noon of that day by General Miles to the Sec- 
retary of War : 

In answer to your telegram, I report the fol- 
lowing: Mayor Hopkins last night issued a 
proclamation prohibiting riotous assemblies and 



32 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

directing the police to stop people from molest- 
ing railway communication. Governor Altgeld 
has ordered General Wheeler's brigade on duty 
in Chicago to support the Mayor's authority. 
So far, there have been no large mobs like the 
one of yesterday, which moved from 51st Street 
to 18th Street before it dispersed. The lawless- 
ness has been along the line of the railways, 
destroying and burning more than one hundred 
cars and railway buildings, and obstructing 
transportation in various ways, even to the extent 
of cutting telegraph lines. United States troops 
have dispersed mobs at 51st Street, Kensington, 
and a company of infantry is moving along the 
Rock Island to support a body of United States 
marshals in making arrests for violating the in- 
junction of the United States court. Of the 
twenty-three roads centering in Chicago, only six 
are unobstructed in freight, passenger, and mail 
transportation. Thirteen are at present entirely 
obstructed, and ten are running only mail- and 
passenger-trains. Large numbers of trains mov- 
ing in and out of the city have been stoned and 
fired upon by mobs, and one engineer killed. 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 33 

There was a secret meeting to-day of Debs and 
the representatives of labor unions considering 
the advisability of a general strike of all labor 
unions. About one hundred men were present at 
that meeting. The result is not yet known. 
United States troops are at the stock-yards, Ken- 
sington, Blue Island, crossing of 51st Street, and 
have been moving along some of the lines : the 
balance, eight companies of infantry, battery of 
artillery, and one troop of cavalry, are camped 
on Lake Front Park, ready for any emergency 
and to protect Government buildings and prop- 
erty. It is learned from the Fire Department, 
City Hall, that a party of strikers has been going 
through the vicinity from 14th to 41st streets and 
Stewart Avenue freight-yards, throwing gasoline 
on freight-cars all through that section. Captain 
Ford, of the Fire Department, was badly stoned 
this morning. Troops have just dispersed a mob 
of incendiaries on Fort Wayne tracks, near 
51st Street, and fires that were started have 
been suppressed. Mob just captured mail-train 
at 47th Street, and troops sent to disperse 
them. 



34 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

On the eighth day of July, in view of the 
apparently near approach of a crisis which the 
Government had attempted to avoid, the fol- 
lowing Executive Proclamation was issued and 
at once extensively published in the city of 
Chicago : 

Whereas, by reason of unlawful obstruction, 
combinations and assemblages of persons, it has 
become impracticable, in the judgment of the 
President, to enforce, by the ordinary course of 
judicial proceedings, the laws of the United 
States within the State of Illinois, and especially 
in the city of Chicago within said State; and 

Whereas, for the purpose of enforcing the 
faithful execution of the laws of the United 
States and protecting its property and removing 
obstructions to the United States mails in the 
State and city aforesaid, the President has em- 
ployed a part of the military forces of the United 
States : — 

Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President 
of the United States, do hereby admonish all 
good citizens, and all persons who may be or may 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 35 

come within the City and State aforesaid, against 
aiding, countenancing, encouraging, or taking any 
part in such unlawful obstructions, combinations, 
and assemblages ; and I hereby warn all persons 
engaged in or in any way connected with such 
unlawful obstructions, combinations, and assem- 
blages to disperse and retire peaceably to their 
respective abodes on or before twelve o'clock 
noon of the 9th day of July instant. \ 

Those who disregard this warning and persist 
in taking part with a riotous mob in forcibly re- 
sisting and obstructing the execution of the laws 
of the United States, or interfering with the 
functions of the Government, or destroying or 
attempting to destroy the property belonging to 
the United States or under its protection, cannot 
be regarded otherwise than as public enemies. 

Troops employed against such a riotous mob 
will act with all the moderation and forbearance 
K consistent with the accomplishment of the de- 
sired end; but the stern necessities that confront 
them will not with certainty permit discrimination 
between guilty participants and those who are 
mingling with them from curiosity and without 



36 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

criminal intent. The only safe course, therefore, 
for those not actually participating, is to abide 
at their homes, or at least not to be found in the 
neighborhood of riotous assemblages. 

While there will be no vacillation in the deci- 
sive treatment of the guilty, this warning is es- 
pecially intended to protect and save the innocent. 

On the ioth of July, Eugene V. Debs, the 
president of the American Railway Union, 
together with its vice-president, general secre- 
tary, and one other who was an active direc- 
tor, were arrested upon indictments found 
against them for complicity in the obstruction 
of mails and interstate commerce. Three days 
afterward our special counsel expressed the 
opinion that the strike was practically broken. 
This must not be taken to mean, however, that 
peace and quiet had been completely restored 
or that the transportation of mails and the ac- 
tivities of interstate commerce were entirely 
free from interruption. It was only the ex- 
pression of a well-sustained and deliberate ex- 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 37 

pectation that the combination of measures 
already inaugurated, and others contemplated 
in the near future, would speedily bring about 
a termination of the difficulty. 

On the seventeenth day of July an informa- 
tion was filed in the United States Circuit 
Court at Chicago against Debs and the three 
other officials of the Railway Union who had 
been arrested on indictment a few days before, 
but were then at large on bail. This informa- 
tion alleged that these parties had been guilty 
of open, continued, and defiant disobedience of 
the injunction which was served on them July 
3, forbidding them to do certain specified acts 
tending to incite and aid the obstruction of the 
carriage of mails and the operation of inter- 
state commerce. On the footing of this infor- 
mation these parties were brought before the 
court to show cause why they should not be 
punished for contempt in disobeying the in- 
junction. Instead of giving bail for their free- 
dom pending the investigation of this charge 
against them, as they were invited to do, they 



38 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

preferred to be committed to custody — perhaps 
intending by such an act of martyrdom either 
to revive a waning cause, or to gain a plausi- 
ble and justifying excuse for the collapse of 
their already foredoomed movement. Debs 
himself, in speaking of this event afterward, 
said: "As soon as the employees found that 
we were arrested and taken from the scene of 
action they became demoralized, and that end- 
ed the strike." 

That the strike ended about the time of this 
second arrest is undoubtedly true ; for, during 
the few days immediately preceding and fol- 
lowing the seventeenth day of July, reports 
came from nearly all the. localities to which the 
strike had spread, indicating its defeat and the 
accomplishment of all the purposes of the 
Government's interference. The successful as- 
sertion of national authority was conclusively 
indicated when on the twentieth day of July 
the last of the soldiers of the United States 
who had been ordered for duty at the very 
center of opposition and disturbance, were 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 39 

withdrawn from Chicago and returned to. the 
military posts to which they were attached. 

I hope I have been successful thus far in my 
effort satisfactorily to exhibit the extensive 
reach and perilous tendency of the convulsion 
under consideration, the careful promptness 
which characterized the interference of the 
Government, the constant desire of the national 
administration to avoid extreme measures, the 
scrupulous limitation of its interference to pur- 
poses which were clearly within its constitu- 
tional competency and duty, and the gratifying 
and important results of its conservative but 
stern activity. 

I must not fail to mention here as part of the 
history of this perplexing affair, a contribu- 
tion made by the governor of Illinois to its 
annoyances. This official not only refused to 
regard the riotous disturbances within the bor- 
ders of his State as a sufficient cause for an 
application to the Federal Government for its 
protection "against domestic violence" under 
the mandate of the Constitution, but he ac- 



4 o THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

tually protested against the presence of Fed- 
eral troops sent into the State upon the general 
Government's own initiative and for the pur- 
pose of defending itself in the exercise of its 
well-defined legitimate functions. 

On the fifth day of July, twenty-four hours 
after our soldiers had been brought to the city 
of Chicago, pursuant to the order of July 3d, 
I received a long despatch from Governor Alt- 
geld, beginning as follows : 

v I am advised that you have ordered Federal 
troops to go into service in the State of Illinois. 
Surely the facts have not been correctly presented 
to you in this case or you would not have taken 
the step ; for it is entirely unnecessary and, as it 
seems to me, unjustifiable. Waiving all question 
of courtesy, I will say that the State of Illinois is 
not only able to take care of itself, but it stands 
ready to-day to furnish the Federal Government 
any assistance it may need elsewhere. 

This opening sentence was followed by a 
lengthy statement which so far missed actual 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 41 

conditions as to appear irrelevant, and, in some 
parts, absolutely frivolous. 

This remarkable despatch closed with the 
following words : 

j As Governor of the State of Illinois, I protest 
against this and ask the immediate withdrawal of 
Federal troops from active duty in this State. 
Should the situation at any time get so serious 
that we cannot control it with the State forces, 
we will promptly and freely ask for Federal as- 
sistance ; but until such time I protest with all 
due deference against this uncalled-for reflection 
upon our people, and again ask for the immediate 
withdrawal of these troops. 

Immediately upon the receipt of this com- 
munication, I sent to Governor Altgeld the fol- 
lowing reply : 

Federal troops were sent to Chicago in strict 
accordance with the Constitution and the laws of 
the United States, upon the demand of the Post- 
Office Department that obstructions of the mails 



42 



THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 



should be removed, and upon the representation 
of the judicial officers of the United States that 
process of the Federal courts could not be ex- 
ecuted through the ordinary means, and upon 
abundant proof that conspiracies existed against 
commerce between the States. To meet these 
conditions, which are clearly within the province 
of Federal authority, the presence of Federal 
troops in the city of Chicago was deemed not 
only proper but necessary; and there has been 
no intention of thereby interfering with the 
plain duty of the local authorities to preserve the 
peace of the city. 



Ill 

In response to this the governor, evidently 
unwilling to allow the matter at issue between 
us to rest without a renewal of argument and 
protest, at once addressed to me another long 
telegraphic communication, evidently intended 
to be more severely accusatory and insistent 
than its predecessor. Its general tenor may be 
inferred from the opening words : 

Your answer to my protest involves some start- 
ling conclusions, and ignores and evades the 
question at issue — that is, that the principle of 
local self-government is just as fundamental in 
our institutions as is that of Federal supremacy. 
You calmly assume that the Executive has the 
legal right to order Federal troops into any com- 
munity of the United States in the first instance, 
whenever there is the slightest disturbance, and 
that he can do this without any regard to the 
43 



44 



THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 



question as to whether the community is able to 
and ready to enforce the law itself. 

After a rather dreary discussion of the im- 
portance of preserving the rights of the States 
and a presentation of the dangers to constitu- 
tional government that lurked in the course 
that had been pursued by the general Govern- 
ment, this communication closed as follows : 

Inasmuch as the Federal troops can do nothing 
but what the State troops can do there, and believ- 
ing that the State is amply able to take care of 
the situation and to enforce the law, and believ- 
ing that the ordering out of the Federal troops 
was unwarranted, I again ask their withdrawal. 

I confess that my patience was somewhat 
strained when I quickly sent the following de- 
spatch in reply to this communication : 

Executive Mansion. 
Washington, D. C, July 6, 1894. 
While I am still persuaded that I have neither 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 45 

transcended my authority nor duty in the emer- 
gency that confronts us, it seems to me that in 
this hour of danger and public distress, discussion 
may well give way to active efforts on the part of 
all in authority to restore obedience to law and to 
protect life and property. 

Grover Cleveland. 
Hon. John P. Altgeld, 
Governor of Illinois. 



This closed a discussion which in its net re- 
sults demonstrated how far one's disposition 
and inclination will lead him astray in the field 
of argument. 

I shall conclude the treatment of my subject 
by a brief reference to the legal proceedings 
which grew out of this disturbance, and finally 
led to an adjudication by the highest court in 
our land, establishing in an absolutely authori- 
tative manner and for all time the power of the 
national Government to protect itself in the 
exercise of its functions. 

It will be recalled that in the course of our 



46 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

narrative we left Mr. Debs, the president of 
the Railway Union, and his three associates in 
custody of the law, on the seventeenth day of 
July, awaiting an investigation of the charge 
of contempt of court made against them, based 
upon their disobedience of the writs of injunc- 
tion forbidding them to do certain things in aid 
or encouragement of interference with mail 
transportation or interstate commerce. 

This investigation was so long delayed that 
the decision of the Circuit Court before which 
the proceedings were pending was not rendered 
until the fourteenth day of December, 1894. 
On that date the court delivered an able and 
carefully considered decision rinding Debs and 
his associates guilty of contempt of court, bas- 
ing its decision upon the provisions of the law 
of Congress, passed in 1890, entitled : "An act 
to protect trade and commerce against unlaw- 
ful restraint and monopolies"; sometimes 
called the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. There- 
upon the parties were sentenced on said con- 
viction to confinement in the county jail for 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 47 

terms varying from three to six months. Af- 
terward, and on the 14th day of January, 
1895, the prisoners applied to the Supreme 
Court of the United States for a writ of habeas 
corpus to relieve them from imprisonment, on 
the ground that the facts found against them 
by the Circuit Court did not constitute diso- 
bedience of the writs of injunction and that 
their commitment in the manner and for the 
reasons alleged was without justification and 
not within the constitutional power and juris- 
diction of that tribunal. 

On this application, the case was elaborately 
argued before the Supreme Court in March, 
1895 > an d on the twenty-seventh day of May, 
1895, ^e court rendered its decision, upholding 
on the broadest grounds the proceedings of the 
Circuit Court and confirming its adjudication 
and the commitment to jail of the petitioners 
thereupon. 

Justice Brewer, in delivering the unanimous 
opinion of the Supreme Court, stated the case 
as follows: 



48 THE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

The United States, finding that the interstate 
transportation of persons and property, as well as 
the carriage of mails, is forcibly obstructed, and 
that a combination and conspiracy exists to sub- 
ject the control of such transportation to the will 
of the conspirators, applied to one of their courts 
sitting as a court of equity, for an injunction to 
restrain such obstructions and prevent carrying 
into effect such conspiracy. Two questions of 
importance are presented : First, are the relations 
of the general Government to interstate commerce 
and the transportation of the mails such as to 
authorize a direct interference to prevent a forci- 
ble obstruction thereof ? Second, if authority ex- 
ists, — as authority in governmental affairs implies 
both power and duty, — has a court of equity 
jurisdiction to issue an injunction in aid of the 
performance of such duty? 

Both of these questions were answered by 
the court in the affirmative ; and in the opinion 
read by the learned justice, the inherent power 
of the Government to execute the powers and 
functions belonging to it by means of physical 



CHICAGO STRIKE OF 1894 49 

force through its official agents, and on every 
foot of American soil, was amply vindicated by 
a process of reasoning simple, logical, unham- 
pered by fanciful distinctions, and absolutely 
conclusive; and the Government's peaceful re- 
sort to the court, the injunction issued in its 
aid, and all the proceedings thereon, including 
the imprisonment of Debs and his associates, 
were fully approved. 

Thus the Supreme Court of the United 
States has written the closing words of this 
history, tragical in many of its details, and in 
every line provoking sober reflection. As we 
gratefully turn its concluding page, those who 
were most nearly related by executive responsi- 
bility to the troublous days whose story is told 
may well especially congratulate themselves on 
the part which fell to them in marking out the 
way and clearing the path, now unchangeably 
established, which shall hereafter guide our na- 
tion safely and surely in the exercise of the im- 
portant functions which represent the people's 
trust. 



OCT 31 1913 



